The schedule is moving fast and furious now, as the Islanders will play back-to-backs yet again this weekend with the Devils tonight at the Coliseum and the Rangers tomorrow night at the Garden. They’ll play four games in eight days, before a bit of a reprieve next week. In the standings, the team continues to sit in no man’s land, just as far away from last place (if you don’t count Columbus’ miserable season) as they are from 8th in the Eastern Conference. With a 4-5-1 record in their last ten, well, that kind of makes sense. They’ve been middling for a few weeks now. Since the beginning of February they’re 8-8-2 with no more than two wins in a row and only one three-game point streak. Go to the library a paste a picture of them under the dictionary’s definition of “mediocre” because lately that’s exactly what they’ve been.

A few more notes to get you ready for the weekend:
– Prospects Brock Nelson, Scott Mayfield and Jason Clark will be on NBC this weekend playing amateur hockey. [LHH]
– Anders Nilsson will get the start tonight in net, his second start this week against the Devils. The last one worked out pretty well.
– Dylan Reese will take Milan Jurcina’s spot in the lineup tonight.
– Matt Martin will sit tonight as well, out with the flu/food poisoning. I would imagine that means @Grabs40 is back.
– The Sound Tigers lost in a shootout to the CT Whale last night. The Sound Tigers still hold a 1-point lead in the divisional race and are still 20-3-3 in 2012.